Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
I was positively gobsmacked when I logged in today and noted that you were discussing cars, and new cars, new-used cars, etc., CovCat, because that's exactly what I was coming to bitch about!
I mean, think about the reality of CARS. I understand that a Roller, for example, is hand-made, stem-stern. There, you're discussing craftsmanship and warranties that aren't normal for a car--I can understand why it's pricey.
BUT: what makes, for example, a Jaguar worth more than a Camaro? The olden days of a Jag also having a boatload of custom work are gone. The amount of steel, aluminum and plastic/carbon fiber (fibre for my UK cousins) is about the same. So: WHY? Why is an Audi worth so much more than its first-cousin, the Passat, or the CC?
Really, it's kind of ridiculous. Somewhere in time, we had "regular" cars (Fords, etc.) and we had big-ass cars driven by chauffeurs (think the late 20's, 30's.) And from that, we've been suckered into thinking that car Z is "better' than car A. For no real reason. We don't see, in Cons. Reports, etc., that one car or car brand is AMAZINGLY better than others. We don't buy a mid-range car that is more, because it is guaranteed to last for 20 years; all the warranties are pretty much the damn same.
So...it's EGO. It's what's fashionable, what's hot, what's flashy. What we think makes us LOOK COOL. There's really no other explanation. I'm all for capitalism, as you all know, so...hey. If the car companies have suckered a bunch of people into paying ridiculous amounts of money for cars (I mean, really, who wants to pay $60K for a CAR? it's not a cure for cancer; it's not the Fountain of Youth or Eternal Life...it's a bloody CAR), then...good on them, I guess. But no more impulse buys for this old broad. It will go from A-->Z reliably and with reasonable comfort, and unless it looks like the Purple People Eater Oscar Meyer Machine, I'll suffer with whatever the outside looks like. I like beauty as much as the next person, but I'm not going to be rooked for it. It's just bloody absurd to get snookered into paying a quarter (or 6th or 3rd or whatever) of a house purchase for something that FALLS APART and doesn't, like a HOUSE gain value (in the norm). Screw this s**t.
Hitch
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I'm reminded of a story (fable?) I once heard about Mercedes Benz. It went something like this:
In the late 1940's Mercedes Benz decided to test the US market and shipped several hundred cars to the US. When deciding on a price point they reasoned that Chevrolets and Fords were the best sellers and positioned against that market. Sales were abysmal! They only sold a handful of cars, and were faced with the option of abandoning the stock or shipping it back to Germany. Thinking out of the box, they consulted with an advertising agency on Fifth Avenue, and got this advice.
"Pull out of the market and place the remainder of the stock in storage in the US for a year or two. Then double the price and re-enter the market against Cadillac and Lincoln with the exact same cars." They sold like hotcakes! And Mercedes Benz has been in the luxury car market ever since.